Category Archives: Blog

Remembering Paul Eddington

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Heart Paul Eddington lived in my constituency and today a bench was opened commemorating himwarming! That’s what today was. I ‘opened’ a park bench. This bench is dedicated to the memory of Paul Eddington (of the Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister). He used to live in Park Avenue North, in my constituency, and the Warner Estates Residents Association (WERA) – mainly in the form of Joyce Rosser – organised the fund-raising for the bench. Moreover, the bench is on Priory Road by Priory Common – and Priory Common itself came about because WERA turned this little strip of land into something. Named it and claimed it. Cleared it of litter and weeds and a sign is being made with its name on to be put up soon.

Anyway – back to the bench. It is a splendid bench with a lovely plaque dedicated to Paul Eddington. Patricia, and two of their sons – Toby and Hugo – came back for the ‘opening’ of the bench. A really amazing crowd of local residents turned out to celebrate and what was so lovely (and heart warming!) was that the warm affectionate smile that comes to everyone who thinks about Paul as Yes Minister etc exactly summed up the warmth of the community action. A truly lovely event.

(You can even watch a very brief movie clip of the opening – as the wrong button was pushed on my camera by mistake!).

Hornsey Central Hospital

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Ruth Carnall is the Chief Executive of the new London Strategic Health Authority. I wanted to see her because at the recent public meeting on Hornsey Hospital it was made clear that a parcel of land from the site is to be sold off. Now – it is one thing if it is sold and all the money comes back into developing a new health facility on the site – but another if the money disappears into some distant pot and we here are left high and dry without hospital, without the land and without the dosh!

Where the money goes is down to this new body – so I wanted to meet them, but they didn’t want to see me! When my office phoned, (and my ‘arranger’ Ed is pretty insistent) – they insisted that I go and see the local Chief Executive of the Enfield Haringey Health Authority – Tracy Baldwin. So I did on Friday.

Happily, the fuss I made about wanting to see Ruth Carnall had preceded me in that Tracy Baldwin had been to the London body and been greeted by ‘who is this Lynne Featherstone?’! According to Ms Baldwin this was helpful in that the bid for a government pot of money is ready to be submitted (this is the larger part of the funding needed for the new facility) and if the government grants the bid then, together with the proceeds of the land sale, there would be the money and the plans to start work on the new facility on the site early in the new year. And – importantly – the London Strategic Health Authority have now said that Haringey will have first call on the proceeds. So – not quite a cast-iron legal contract, but pretty good news and if the bid is successful it looks as if the money will come here and the project will go ahead.

I am writing a letter of support for the bid – because this is the best shot at delivering facilities we are going to get. It’s best to get the best of what’s possible. There are other lesser options in the bid – but this is the one to go for. I am optimistic – and next it will be a matter of working to ensure that local people and users of local GPs services get an input to the next round of decisions about the site and its development.

We are a long way on from last year when it looked like only private money for private health would make the project viable. At least with this system the vast majority of the funding is NHS and the consequent facilities are mostly what local people say that they want. So – fingers crossed.

Relocating the police in Muswell Hill?

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On Checking out possible new locations for the police in Muswell Hill with the local Safer Neighbourhood TeamThursday it was off with Sgt Paul Saunders, head of the Muswell Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team to look for suitable premises to re-house two of teams in the community. The Met Police are looking to put the community teams right in the heart of the community they serve – which is the right idea. The idea is to have four main central locations in Haringey for key functions: detention and custody; administration; response teams etc and then each neighbourhood to have its local team based at its heart.

Everyone loves their police station. It makes us feel safe, makes it easier to contact the police in non-emergencies and helps make the police part of the local community (rather than a distant impersonal force). With the reopening of the front counter at Muswell Hill Police Station – following a long campaign together with local police and residents – and with the arrival of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, there has been a sense of vastly improving engagement between the police and the community. When I was on the London Assembly, along with my colleagues I supported full funding for the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and I’ve had a few battles to ensure that parts of the borough don’t miss out on them – so it’s really good to see the reality and that it’s working!

This was clearly evidenced walking around with Sgt Saunders, his colleague Pauline Hearfield and local councillor Martin Newton (Lib Dem, Fortis Green). It was crystal clear by the way everyone said hello to Pauline and Paul that community policing is certainly working well in this patch. In fact, everyone knew them and they knew everybody – not only creating good public/police relations but also the level of knowledge and contact that helps gather intelligence and evidence – and so stop crime and catch crooks.

When the first murmurs of reorganising where police were stationed hit the streets, I had met with local Commander Simon O’Brien. The old Victorian Police stations are not ‘fit for purpose’ and so long as what is offered to local people in exchange for moving from that police station is better or equal then I think the police can argue a good case for the change.

In this light I went round with the police to talk about potential new premises. Some potential premises have already been identified. We walked past a great shop on Fortis Green that they had just missed – and then proceeded to PiP, the printers at the top of Dukes Avenue. I have yet to clarify whether it is ground and basement or the flats above too. If it is the latter, then it has potential – although a lot of work will need to be done (and it begs the question how much will it cost – because at a certain level it might be more economic to modernise the existing premises). If it doesn’t have the extra space – then I am not sure that everything will fit comfortably. So I am writing to Chief Superintendent O’Brien to clarify the situation and to get cast-iron guarantees about the space and what is to go in there exactly. Moreover, Simon O’Brien has also said that he is committed to working with the community, local councillors etc on this and I am also writing to establish how this is going to happen in advance of decisions being taken.

Black History Month

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Yesterday, With Mike Phillips at the launch of Black History Month. Photo: Henry JacobsI went to Bruce Castle to help launch Black History Month. Black History Month takes place in October each year and in Haringey offers the most incredible selection of events for local people to see, join in, visit. If you go to Haringey Council’s website – there is a program there of all the local events. There is a massive range – and it is an opportunity not only for members of the black community to ‘celebrate, learn and remember’ black history but also for all of us who are not black to share, learn, understand and enjoy that history. As I said at the event:

The speakers, the choice, the variety, the depth, the range and the role call of role models – absolutely incredible.

But that’s just it – this program simply mirrors the depth and extent of the contribution of our black community to the fabric of life in Haringey.

I may be, I am, a middle-aged white woman – but for anyone of any race – and we are all races in Haringey – black history is now part of our history too – and I thank the black community for the opportunity that Black History Month also provides for the all of us who are not black to appreciate, learn and understand and share the past and present of our black community and celebrate its achievements – and enjoy its cultural richness.

Congratulations to all who have worked and are working so hard to make this celebration so vibrant and so successful and to Dr Carter Woodson, whose mission and determination to bring black history into the mainstream public arena started so long ago in America but is here today, alive and well in Haringey.

As the month says: celebrate, learn and remember. That’s really says it all.

Mike Phillips (novelist and Curator of the Tate) was the Honoured Guest and gave a really good speech. I spoke briefly as did George Meehan – Haringey’s Leader. It was a lovely evening and a good opportunity to have a natter with all those who came.

Climate change and the Big Ask

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ABeing lobbied by local Friends of the Earth supporters as part of their Big Ask campaign few days ago I was lobbied by members of the local Friends of the Earth group about climate change.

This is a BIG issue as up and down the land we try and get the Government to put the Climate Change Bill into the Queen’s Speech. The lobby group had brought with hundreds of postcards all individually filled by members of the public lobbying MPs (in this case me) to put pressure on the Government to do so. (You can read more about their campaign on the Friends of the Earth website).

As the Lib Dems lead the field on environmental issues and have already challenged the Government to bring in the bill it was an absolute pleasure to meet this committed group who understand that climate change is the big issue for all of us and that the next ten years are absolutely key. The Government must set and meet by statute targets on carbon emission reduction.

I had already written to T Blair and D Millibland on the subject – still waiting for a response. But will write again – and also ask that the Al Gore film be shown in Parliament.

I have sent out with my army of volunteer deliverers around 15,000 letters urging local people to see Al’s film An Inconvenient Truth. It is the best case and the best illustrated case to date. Just go and see it. The film will do its own convincing.

Where should the buses park in Highgate?

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Yesterday I met the Leader of Camden Council, Keith Moffat, in Highgate Village to make him see for himself how destructive Camden’s proposals to stand buses outside the restaurants on South Grove would be. If Transport for London will consider the Highgate Society’s plan to move the whole caboodle – this might turn into a golden opportunity to sort the village out. Fortunately, Keith saw immediately the problem and promised to look into the issue further.

It’s the subject of my latest column:

The plan to start parking buses alongside the restaurants in Highgate Village is insane. The bus stands should never have been sited 30 years ago in the middle of the Village on the opposite side of the road from the restaurants anyway – but to propose parking them on the same (south) side as the restaurants … !

You can read the full piece on my website.

Political webcasting

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I’ve got a piece on Liberal Review this morning about my experience trying out webcasting:

I’ve been a webcast guinea pig!

I was one of a trio of people who tried out doing a daily video diary / webcast / online film / call it what you will from the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton this year. The other two were our leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and my friend Duncan Brack – who chairs the conference committee. We were also joined on various days by a few “special guests”, such as Paddy Ashdown who did one broadcast himself too. (Given Paddy’s well-known fondness for hi-tech gadgetry and his background, I was a bit disappointed to find he didn’t go round with his own live web-casting camera sown into a buttonhole!).

You can read the full piece here.

Hearing tests

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At I took a hearing test with fellow MPs Nick Clegg and Mark Hunter and Lib Dem peer, Tim Clement-Jonesparty conferences, a whole host of organisations pitch up to lobby people and promote their causes.

One of the very good causes is RNID – who had a stand at the Lib Dem conference (and the other party conferences too I guess) where you could get your hearing tested.

A good reminder to us all to be virtuous – and be tested rather than leave it till it is too late!